commute differences and related puzzles

I keep trying to put into words what I like and dislike about the current commute. I don't ride to work as often as I would like, these days, and am trying to figure out why that is. My default mode on this sort of thing is that of "problem solver." I believe in the scientific method. Define the puzzle, create a hypothesis, test against it, reformulate it, etc. until the puzzle is solved.

Since I use this blog to "think aloud," so to speak (or type), I'll play with what's in my head here.

My commute to N'Awb'ny was enjoyable in many ways. It made sense in some way. It was more urban, so traffic speeds around me were a bit slower. There were more frequent stop lights. I got to see the sun rise over the river when crossing the Clark Bridge many times. I enjoyed crossing the bridge most times (weather became an unpleasant factor on some rides, heavy traffic on others).

While I don't mind the commute to Crestwood that much, it's not as pleasant for some reason (or set of reasons). For the first mile or two, I'm working on getting to Westport Road. There is a large construction project along Westport these days, widening it from the under-construction interchange with the Watterson "Distressway" west to about Thierman Lane, where there is a new Target store (yippee...). I've found back streets that get me past the worst of the construction, and use the new, not-yet-open-to-traffic section to get past a bit more of the rough pavement (I have mixed feelings on this). I enter Westport Road just west of the new interchange, and soon there are two decent lanes in each direction so traffic can better deal with my being there.

While traffic on this four-lane stretch of Westport Road has a speed limit of forty-five miles an hour (and some motorists even abide by this limit), the lanes are wide enough, the sight lines good enough, and traffic light enough at the time of my going-to-work ride that I have very little trouble for the six or so miles of that leg of my commute. While not particularly scenic (strip malls and such are all over the place), it's not as bad as it could be.

Westport Road narrows to two lanes less than a mile east of the Jefferson Freeway (its proper name), or as some call it, the Snyder Freeway (its public name). There are still several industrial sites beyond that point, so I get to be passed by the occasional large truck. The road gets "curvy" in that stretch as well, so the sight lines shorten. There are not many places where I can pull to the side to let a longer line of traffic pass, so I'm sure folks get frustrated at how slow they have to go when I'm doing fifteen or so in their forty-five zone (I do sometimes stop in a driveway or something if I realize I'm holding up several cars).

The next leg of my commute is Rollington Road. I really like Rollington--it's fairly quiet, and there is a shaded descent that is lots of fun. When I was captaining club rides out of Scheller's in Middletown, I had a ride that featured Rollington Road (the cue sheet for this ride can be found on kybikerides.org, along with MANY others). I don't follow Rollington all the way to its end, though, as it goes out of my way after a bit. I take Houston Lane up to Pewee Valley's "main drag," Mount Mercy Drive, which is parallel to LaGrange Road. At the far end of Mount Mercy, I get on LaGrange Road for the last mile or so to Crestwood. Depending on the day and my mood, I may stop at the IGA in Crestwood for some snacks for later and follow LaGrange Road the rest of the way, or follow Ballardsville Road out of downtown Crestwood until I reach S.R. 329 By-pass, then take Old LaGrange Road until I cross the railroad track at Camden Station, almost across LaGrange Road from the shopping plaza where the store is located.

None of these roads are bad. None of the intersections is terrible. The scenery isn't ugly, at least not on order of some places I've cycled past here in town (tasteless or tacky, perhaps, but at least fairly clean and of recent construction). On my commute to N'Awb'ny, however, I had Frankfort Avenue, Payne Street, the bridge, Spring Street in N'Awb'ny--all places where there are older buildings with loads of character and fun "local color." Much of Westport Road looks like suburbia in Anywhereville. It lacks soul or something. LaGrange Road is too narrow for the traffic it carries, and being on a bicycle on that road takes a lot of confidence and assertiveness (and I'm known for having something of a chip on my shoulder about riding where the roads take me).

Then there is the trip home. Houston Lane is almost a wide lane worth of width--it's a very narrow two-lane road. On the way home, it's a descent, and it's a dark one. The road surface is not pristine by a large margin. I have stronger headlights on order to more comfortably deal with this segment of my trips home in the coming seasonal earlier darkness.

One thing that puzzles me about this desire for more lighting is that ten years ago, I was riding from Scheller's in Middletown to my mother's house near Aiken Road. I was riding on Aiken Road, in the dark, when the bridge across Floyd's Fork was a one-lane span in the middle of an ess-turn, with no street lights within a mile or three, as much or more traffic, and didn't feel like I needed a lot more light. What's different? What has changed?

Was it that the increased traffic gave me more ambient light--that I was using the headlights of passing cars to see farther ahead? Was it something else entirely, something related to the fact that I'm ten years older?

I am certain, however, that I am more visible to other road users than I was ten years ago. On the same bike I was riding then, I have installed much brighter rear flashers and reflective panels. At the time, I was wearing an Illuminite jacket when the weather was cool enough that I could tolerate the extra layer, just as I do now. Some parts of my commute route are a bit more hostile as cycling environments, and the extra visibility I've gained makes me less uncomfortable in those sections.

I don't know. I'll have to think about this stuff some more before I've solved the puzzle. Maybe the one or two folks who read my ramblings has some ideas for me.

Seasonal milestones

In the spring, I was posting about seasonal milestones I enjoyed--first ride home in shorts instead of long tights, rides without this or that cool-weather item, rides during which I got to enjoy a bit of sunrise as I pedaled across the Clark Bridge and the like.

This time of year, I think of the reverse milestones--yesterday was the first day I wore a balaclava on my ride to work. I wore the Illuminite jacket to work for the first time earlier in the week (although I drove the other days, as I'm not outfitted quite to my liking for riding to work in the rain--more on that in a moment). The balaclava in question is not a heavy one, however. I have three or four of them made of silk--I found them at Campmor a few years back. I assume Quest Outdoors would order them if I pushed them hard enough, and I'd prefer to buy from a local vendor...I'll have to ask at the Trail Store in Westport Village, too!

Anyway, I like the silk balaclava for many reasons. It's very thin, so it fits inside my helmets easily. It's just enough to keep the hard edge of wind off my face and ears without making me overly hot (although I do sweat through them in vigorous riding). It's washable (I have a load of stuff I wash on gentle cycle then line-dry, even though some of that stuff is robust enough that it could be machine dried--I don't need to run the dryer as much this way).

On the rain thing: a friend contends that there is no bad weather, only bad gear. My current commute is such that I'm not as inclined to ride the Raleigh, and my rain gear, such as it is, is better suited to that bike than to my Vanguard. I've never been fond of cycling in the rain in the first place, for various reasons. I'm somewhat more willing to ride in the rain when cycling for utility than I am for fitness or leisure riding, and as the Raleigh is more of a utility bike, I'm also more willing to ride it in the rain than I am the Vanguard. I'll have to think about this some more...

Seasonal lighting reminder

Prompted by the latest post on Kirk's blog, it's time to do a seasonal reminder to be seen at night. About this time last year, I added some reflective stuff to my Ryan, the better to be seen any time the light isn't ideal. Here's a shot from about that time:





I used to work in a sign store, and collected some scraps of reflective vinyl when there. I went back there and bought some more, in different colors, and received a big piece that had been mis-cut for one of their projects as well. I have a LOT of reflective vinyl.

I also have some scraps of various substrates, like Alumicor and DiBond, each basically two thin sheets of aluminum on either side of a sheet of corrugated plastic or sheet plastic, respectively. I can cut this stuff to whatever size and shape I desire with a fine-tooth saw (or even a circular saw), file the edges, drill mounting holes, apply the vinyl and presto! I have custom reflectors!

The vinyl adheres to my fenders as well, as you can see in the above picture.

Mindful that some of my grocery shopping will, of necessity, be done after dark, I outfitted my little trailer with a panel as well. For this one, I used some Alumicor, and removed enough from the unseen side to allow me to install a pair of Planet Bike Superflash taillights. These dudes are BRIGHT. Anyone coming up behind me has no excuse whatsoever for saying he or she didn't see me.




Soon after this picture was taken, I picked up a piece of 1/4" threaded rod to complete the flag pole. When I bought the trailer, the lower portion of the pole was missing, and threaded rod--available in the hardware store a couple blocks away from the house, was just the ticket. The flag pole has a bit of reflective tape on it as well. I have to chuckle about the brand name on this trailer, though. I consider it far from the safest kid trailer on the market (I used to sell Yakima's kid trailers, among other brands), but as I don't have small children and am using it for cargo instead, I'm fine with what it is. I only paid $50 for it, and have enjoyed having it already.

And, of course, there is my helmet, mentioned in a post a few days ago. Some time in the next few evenings, I'll get pictures of all this stuff in low light--partially to see how I'm doing on the "be seen" scale.

I know I need to add some stuff to my wife's bike, too. She rides to work often, and is wearing an Illuminite jacket I've had for several years, in addition to her own blinky lights front and rear, a few reflectors I made for her bike, strips of reflective vinyl on her pedals, her pair of traffic officer gloves, and the like.

"Traffic Officer Gloves." A friend calls them "Tom Armstrong gloves." I started seeing traffic control officers wearing these several years ago and thought them a neat idea. Most police uniform dealers can get them for you if they don't have them in stock--I've bought mine at the place on Second Street just south of Breckinridge Street in the Old Louisville area (sort-of across Second from the Kroger). Here's a shot of them, taken from the Chief Supply site:



I like these for several reasons: I can wear them any time of year, they make most folks' hands look HUGE and easy to see, they fit over most gloves (even some of mine, and I have big hands), and the red triangle on the palm automatically becomes a brake light when one is making a slowing signal to other road users. I can turn my hands in such a way as to make the reflective "flash" as a turn signal would as well, hopefully getting a following motorist's attention more readily.

My younger stepdaughter made a derogatory comment about them recently, but she's nineteen and likes to talk disparagingly about stuff that isn't her favorite. Her older sister thinks it's cool that her mom and stepfather ride for utility, and that we teach following traffic law as well as follow it ourselves. She's been known to call out folks she knows who are riding in ninja mode or on the sidewalks--both things that are horribly hazardous to all around.

cranky update

Since I started working on bikes as a teenager, I've had to deal with cottered cranks. I've worked on many bikes and pieces of exercise equipment that had them (including Air-Dynes), and have only had two I had to really beat to death to remove. As I mentioned, one of these was on my own bike, my Raleigh.

I installed new pins the other night, when I overhauled the bottom bracket on that bike. I rode the bike beyond a mere test-ride for the first time last night, and noticed pretty quickly that at least one of my crank cotter pins was not holding well.

I got home from the short errand, set up my brace, drove the pin home again, tightened the retaining nut, and tried a test-ride. It failed again. I got Jenn to help hold the bike still while I drove both pins in again, only to find that one of them had become mis-shapened and was in need of replacement. The pins we have for Jenn's Peugeot are not large enough in diameter, and won't do the job.

I found another batch of pins at Bicycle Couriers' Bike Shop on Frankfort Avenue, and will install them shortly. In the mean time, though, I've been irratible about my bike not working--cranky, you might say.

Jenn and I considered riding another century today, but I wasn't interested in doing so if the wind was as strong as it had been the last couple days. As it turned out, the weather would have been quite nice for it, but by the time we figured that out, it was too late to do the century.

Instead, we made a trip out of cycling to brunch at Ramsi's Cafe on the World, a spot we whole-heartedly recommend, then cycling to the St James Court Art Show, as Bicycling for Louisville had free valet bike parking. I took the Raleigh, as it's the easiest for me to pull the trailer (I don't like having it hitched as far forward as is necessary on the Vanguard).

We spent a few hours wandering around the show, and while we didn't buy anything today, we got contact information for several vendors who had stuff we may want to get later (i.e. as finances allow). We cycled home, by which time I got tired of how noisy my bike was being.

I'd been putting off overhauling the bottom bracket--mostly a function of not wanting to deal with the cottered crank on that bike. I decided that this was the day.

I don't know how many cotter pins I've removed from crank arms over the last thirty years. I've had two that refused to come out in the normal manner--the right one on my Raleigh was the second one. After mushrooming the threaded end trying to drive it out with a hammer and punch, I took a suggestion I'd seen some time back on Sheldon's site, and started drilling. This didn't get the job done, so I put it all back together and tried riding the bike. Sure enough, the remnant of the pin collapsed enough that I could extract it, and I could continue with my work.

Now that I have clean grease in the bottom bracket again, and I have adjusted it properly, and have fresh cotter pins in place, AND have lubricated the chain, this bike is MUCH quieter! It pulls better, too, which I mostly ascribe to the fresh lubrication on the chain, although fresh grease in the crank bearings can't be a bad thing. The fact that I didn't have the trailer connected during the test ride may have been another factor, but who knows? ;-)

A job that typically takes about half an hour took me three hours. The biggest surprise, though, was that with all the drilling and pounding, I did no damage to the crank arm or the spindle. ALL of my drilling stayed within the cotter pin, and this with no drill press!

Friday update

As a sometimes-urban rider, and as a League Cycling Instructor who also likes for other road users to see me (the better to avoid hitting me), I've watched others' efforts to attach lights to our helmets. I've added one of the tiny Sigma lights (picked up at the last Mayor's Ride) to my own lid, and thought about having more candlepower up there, but never really got beyond the added weight factor.

I've also eyed the Bell urban helmet, with its more commuter-friendly features, but, alas, cannot seem to get one in a size that fits my head any more.

I was poking around in a vendor's catalog at work a while back, and was intrigued by the Lazer Urbanize model. The idea of integrated lights appealed to me, as did their claims of better rain shedding. I've not tested this last claim--yet--but I will soon, I'm sure.

It also looks quite different than the typical helmets we see. I ordered one recently, and received it a couple days ago.

As with any helmet, the most important thing to me, after ascertaining that there is a CPSC label, is that it fit me. The Lazer Urbanize has their Rollsys (tm) fitting adjustment, which uses a nifty cable arrangement that allows quick adjustment to the circumference to allow for under-the-helmet things like balaclavas or hats. The ear/chin straps adjust in the manner common to better-quality helmets.

Ventilation is another big issue for me, especially when moving slowly in town compared to "smartly down the back road," as I do on my club ride bike. This one has HUGE internal vent channels that feed from under the molded-in bill and the external vents shown in the pictures linked below. During my errand-running today, I tried to pay attention to the airflow through the helmet, and could tell it was venting. Whether it's as cool as my Trek helmet I've been using for commuting of late is hard to tell, as today was not the hottest day I've ridden in a long time. However, it seems to do well enough for commute distances.

The lights are powered by nickel-sized watch batteries, and are thus probably going to need replacement batteries often. Given that I've not seen rechargeable batteries in this size (CR 2032, I think), some on this list will eschew them. They are most certainly not going to be "see where you are going" lights, but do fairly well at being "see where I am" lights. I, of course, have already augmented the lights with some reflective vinyl from my stash. The photos linked below were taken with enough ambient light that my camera refused to use its flash setting, so the reflective stuff doesn't show very well. It's visible as a slight color change on the white of the helmet. I'll probably add a shot or two later in the day to get the flash to do its thing. The lights are readily removable to allow for battery changing or if you want the extra ventilation through their holes in the helmet. Replacement lights are available, too.

It's not a bargain-priced helmet, at about $100 retail, but our heads are important to us. There is limited availability without the lights, at $80 or so.

Just about any bike shop should be able to get you one of these, especially if your bike shop of choice is Bluegrass Bicycle in Crestwood or a shop that buys stuff from QBP, the domestic distributor for Lazer Helmets.

Each of these pictures are "clickable," meaning that if you want to see the entire image, you can click on them. I don't know why this blog cuts off the sides of the images, aside from that the images are too big for the format. They are not huge images in other formats.








The helmet mirror shown is one from Buddy, here in town. He, like a few others around the region, re-uses old stainless steel spokes to make them. If you want one, drop me a line off-list and I'll forward contact information for his wife, Laura, who does most of the sales stuff.

Wednesday post of the week--odds and ends

I happened onto a blog by my friend, Kirk Kandle, today. His latest experiment is to go "car-free." I suspect he will do well at this, as he has been an active commuter for a long time.

I know a few couples and a couple people who are car-free. I admire their tenacity. I admire their ability to make their lives such that they can do that. I admit to being still a bit addicted to owning a car, in that I use my small truck to haul stuff often enough, and far enough, that it's good to keep it for now.

I do, at least, go for being less car-dependent. I ride to work a lot, by many standards (although not as much as I'd prefer recently). I like the Clif Bar 2-mile challenge idea, and would like to see the concept used here with greater impact. As mentioned before, I bought a used kid trailer with the intent of using it to better meet this challenge. It's usually connected to the Raleigh these days, ready for action, as I prefer riding the Vanguard to Crestwood.

Most of the week has been get to work, work, get home in the rain, read, eat, sleep, get up and walk the dog, repeat. However, today I got to lead a lunch-time discussion on bicycle use in traffic. During this session, I met a woman who, with her husband, is car-free. I'm looking forward to meeting her husband, as he is another Ryan owner. He's in charge of sustainability efforts at U of L, and I can't tell you how excited I am that the University has such a position. I'm looking forward to all manner of future discussions with both of them. New friends!

When I got home from that, though, I learned that one of the springs for my garage door had broken. That door is heavy without those springs! By the time I got organized in my search for a replacement, the best source for them was closing for the day. Oh, well. The springs are about $25 each, and I should probably get two of them. I think I can charge them to the landlord, though, so it won't be too big a hit for the bank book. I even get to charge labor for the repair work against my rent (the board anchoring the spring snapped off when the spring recoiled into it after breaking). Nothing else in the garage seems to have been hurt, however. This is a good thing.

Odd and ends time:

Early last week, I learned that a chap on one of the kilt forums I'm on was to be in town. Jenn and I met Keith at a nearby brewery's restaurant, and enjoyed a couple of tasty local products along with our friendly conversation. His work will bring him to town from time to time, so we'll get to see more of each other.

David is getting ready to do the Ride to Conquer Cancer this weekend. I wish I had some money to toss in the pot, but I'm tapped out these days. I'll have to settle for putting some good mojo on his bike for him, so that he can ride without worrying about mechanical issues.

The big bicycle-biz trade show, Interbike, is going on now. Bob is there, getting information on all the latest and greatest stuff. Maybe I'll go next year. I went in 2001, right after the WTC disaster. It was in Vegas, and Vegas is a place I'd just as soon not visit, but the show can be pretty cool.

Playing catch-up

Taking a break from doing some catch-up work around the house today. Lots to do, so I won't type much (or maybe I will).

A post on a list server I watch mentioned Copenhagenize.com, a blog that has a lot of good reading in it. Needless to say, it will be on my watch list for a while.

An anonymous response to one blog entry included the gem: "...I came to realize that it is the attitude and the motor that moves the bike forward, and that obstacles are there to be overcome."

This blog entry has some poster ideas worth considering. I'm sure that many of the motorists' lobbying efforts to reduce bicycle traffic stem from "Traffic safety" messages similar to those cited in this entry. I'm also convinced that to truly do something to improve the safety of our roadways, we need to address the deeper problem--inattentive or scofflaw drivers of motor vehicles and the law enforcement process that allow them to continue--rather than the perceived threat to manic motion of a bicycle in the roadway. David Crowell linked to Motor Mania, a video done by Walt Disney some sixty years ago in his blog several months back. I see elements of that in myself at times, and it's one of the reasons I prefer riding--I don't especially like who I become when I'm driving.

Oh, well, back to the chores.

We did it!

Jenn got to ride her first century over the weekend, and a challenging first century it was!

Yep, the Old Kentucky Home Tour's Pottershop Century!

The bike was great--thanks again to Bill and Kate for letting us borrow it for this event!

As the morning progressed, the buzz had gotten around that Jenn and I were going for her first century ride. By the time we got to the fifty mile point, also the decision point for doing the century instead of the seventy-mile option, Jenn was pumped up and raring to go!

Everyone who rides the OKHT knows of Pottershop Road. Duc Do provided this entry in his list of one hundred (or so) hills in the area. Pottershop Road features three climbs of note (along with several smaller acclivities) to make for a challenging bit of work ninety-five miles into a century. The first averages thirteen-something percent grade for a third of a mile, and it has a relative easy spot in the middle of it. There is a lot of chip-seal road repair on Pottershop Road, which despite its appearances, is fairly stable (albeit worse than sandpaper if one falls on it). A few feet beyond the first patch of chip-seal, my legs cramped, forcing a halt to our first attempt. We sat out the cramps, turned the bike around, and rode back down to the stop sign to try again. Second try was successful, riding (for me, at least) on the verge of leg cramps much of the time. Lowest speeds were in the three miles an hour range, so we got to work not only on keeping it moving, but balancing at that speed.

Much fun was had at the club's rest stop at the top of that first hill, when Jenn and I stopped and she jumped off the bike on her adrenaline-fueled excitement. I stayed on the bike and rested a moment, knowing I was going to need a lot more power to get over the rest of the climbs. Folks thought I was exhausted, and I was certainly tired.

Carl and Sandy Davis, who were staffing the rest stop, had a special treat for us at the stop. Carl opened a bottle of wine to celebrate that Jenn and I were (fairly) newly married, and that part of our honeymoon involved riding Jenn's first century on the OKHT. We didn't drink much--just enough to taste it and celebrate, but it was quite thoughtful of them! Pictures were taken, bottles were refilled, and down that hill we went, looking forward to the several more small climbs and two major ones remaining.

On the last one of the major pitches, our lowest observed speed was two-point-eight miles an hour. It's a little challenging doing a near-track-stand on a tandem, anyway, but at full power to boot? Wow.

Total time for the century was about ten hours. Ride time was about seven hours. Before reaching Pottershop Road, our average speed was about 14.2, down from a high of 14.7 at some point in the day. Our final average rolling speed was something like 13.7 miles an hour, giving an idea of how slow we were on Pottershop Road.

The word got around, though, and Jenn earned lots of props for doing Pottershop as her first century, and we got some kudos (and not a few "are you nuts?" comments) for riding that one on a recumbent tandem.

With all that excitement, I was tired on Sunday. It took me almost thirty miles to loosen up and be able to ride with anything approaching power. It was easy enough to get things rolling when going downhill or on fairly level ground. However, my climbing just flat stunk--my legs simply didn't want to work on anything above a 4% grade.

Oh, well. Off to work. Maybe I'll have more to say later...

Another Fried-day post

Today is 11 September, 2009. It has been eight years since an event that will be a landmark in our psyche for generations to come--the falling of the World Trade Center towers. Much as my parents' generation can to this day remember where they were when they learned of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I will remember where I was when I learned that hijackers had flown aircraft into the Trade Center Towers.

Indeed, I remember many things in terms of "before" and "soon after" the WTC disaster.


In the last ten days, Jenn and I have ridden more than 125 miles on the tandem. We are preparing to ride the Old Kentucky Home Tour this weekend. Indeed, I should already be in bed asleep. I'm apparently waiting for the sister of my stepdaughters' father to arrive on a social call. It's 2300 hours as I type this, and I was under the impression that she'd arrive some time ago. Oh, well, it's only sleep. My gear is mostly packed, aside from things I need tonight that I must pack tomorrow morning. I've discussed the time line for the morning. We'll see how that goes.

At any rate, over the holiday weekend, we got to log more than a hundred miles on the tandem, in a variety of situations. Saturday evening was "country riding" time--we rode the LBC ride out of Bluegrass Bicycle for 25 or so miles, then rode north out Glenarm Road to Hall's Hill Road for some hill practice of our own (climbing Old Zaring's narrow section is great practice). That was good for a total of about forty miles. On Sunday, we rode the LBC afternoon 25-miler, which gave us some practice at stoplights and some time at steady-state motoring along on River Road. Monday morning, we rode to the Mayor's Hike and Bike event, and got some practice at riding on wet roads in rain. The rain stopped soon enough that the event itself was under clear skies, and a good time was had by almost all. After the ride, we rode home, had lunch, then rode out to Lyndon to help with rider packet preparation for this weekend's Old Kentucky Home Tour.

Our plans for OKHT are to ride the seventy-some mile route, deciding at some point whether we are up to riding the century route, and hoping to do so. I am looking forward to that. It would be Jenn's first century ride, and it's a challenging first century route for anyone. It should be a bit easier for her on the tandem. I don't know whether it will be harder on me or easier. I'm sure my average speed will be down a bit from my average speed on my Strada, but I expect I'll have a great time anyway.

Late in March, Jenn proposed to me. The original plan was for us to marry on 9 September, the day before yesterday. Other events prompted a change of plans, and we married on 17 July. We chose to recognize 9 September in our own way, sitting under a neat tree in George Rogers Clark Park for a while and exchanging rings that are indeed ours, not borrowed from each other or whomever. My ring is a size 14...

And the ride to and from the park was good for another eighteen or twenty miles.

I'm settling into the new job duties--it's sort-of official, now, that I'm the Service Manager at Bluegrass Bicycle! I'm sure things will take all sorts of turns and twists (or is that twists and turns?) as we decide what my responsibilities are and how I will discharge my duties (and delegate stuff).

And, tandem preparation goes on apace. After a thorough drivetrain tuning Sunday morning, Jenn and I took it out to see a bit of the Ironman competition and shake out the bike a bit. We rode something like thirty miles, mostly at a fairly relaxed pace, and had NONE of the shifting problems I'd had Saturday. We even got the front computer calibrated correctly (I think--I'm going to check it at least once more in the next few days). We'll have to see how the rear computer calibration compares to the front one, and adjust it accordingly, of course. I have new brake pads for the bike, as the owner mentioned he'd like for the brakes to be quieter and I've learned of a pad that may be quieter AND have better stopping power (always a good thing to have that latter one), compared to what is on the bike now. The current pads are not terribly noisy at the moment, but I had done some adjusting to their positioning before riding the bike the other day, and I don't know how they were with the owner.

He and I talked of the kickstand that is made for the bike, but we will likely hold off on getting that--it's pricey, and the lack of it doesn't hurt how the bike rides.

I've started riding to work again. Before riding home Tuesday, I spoke with Jenn, and since she was still at her workplace, offered to ride by there and ride home with her. It was a slight detour for me, as opposed to a ride in the opposite direction from home as it had been with my last job, so it was a good thing. I like riding with her, whether we are on singles or on a tandem. Good thing, considering we're married! ;-)

Lots of cycling-related undercurrents afoot, too: I'm now on the city's "E-Team" for bicycle education, and will be working on helping create a Bike Ambassador program in the coming months.

Where's he been?

Not sure why I haven't been posting of late, but it's probably a combination of things, as such things tend to be. My current job doesn't have the dead periods I had at the apartment building, so I don't post from work. I've not had anything dramatic happen on the roads of late, save for some surprising leg cramps on the club ride Saturday afternoon. We as a nation lost a champion the other day, but I never felt a personal connection with Ted Kennedy and aside from a community loss, don't feel as personally deprived.

On the other hand, a couple of cool things have come down the pike. Jenn and I will be riding OKHT on a tandem this year--BOTH DAYS! We borrowed a tandem for the second day last year, so that I could ride the century and she could volunteer at a sag stop. Our volunteer duties are such that we can ride this year, and we have borrowed a different bike for the ride (and some fair bit of riding beforehand).

The bike we're on this year is one of the first RANS Screamers to hit Louisville. I took the order for this bike in March of 2001. When they came to pick it up, Bill brought the family to the bicycle store, and asked me if we had any tandems to rent. I told him that we might be able to work out something on the BikeE E2 on display, and Bill asked if we had something a bit sportier. I suggested that he might want to look at the new bike beside me, mostly hidden from the view of one just entering the store. Bill brought Kate over, and murmured something along the lines of "Happy Anniversary, Honey."

Kate almost hit the floor in shock...

Anyway, we get to use the bike for a few weeks. Jenn is stoked at being the stoker--she really enjoys being back there pedaling away while I manage the bike.

I felt compelled to ride the John Carr tribute/fund-raising ride today. I didn't know John, but as a fellow cyclist, his death by motorist was a terrible event for me.

It was good to see so may riders out there today. I was somewhere near the latter half of the group, and enjoyed seeing the large front groups go by the other way on Northwestern Parkway.

The C-J article said something like "over a hundred" cyclists were on hand. I would say they under-estimated, by more than half, how many were there.

Uh-Oh

A writer to the editor of the Tuesday, 18 August C-J all but named names when referring to a pack of scofflaw cyclists. The letter writer would not have had names to enable public calling out of miscreants, but it will be easy to figure out who was at fault. I wish there was a meaningful enforcement we could do...

‘Safe' bicyclists?

Last Sunday morning while heading to church services around 7:40 a.m., my wife and I encountered a group of bicyclists (which we assumed was some sort of club because several had the name “Mad Dogs” on their jerseys) who were pedaling through downtown La Grange.

Over a four-block stretch, this group of “safe” bicyclists blew through three stop signs, rode four and five abreast and zigged and zagged in and out of the two northbound lanes, which had been reduced to one lane for construction at the railroad tracks at Main Street (where they also failed to stop).

Then, as their final insult to traffic laws, these “special people” continued straight (north) on Highway 53 at the intersection of Highway 146 from the “right turn only” lane, also without stopping at the four-way stop sign.

In this four-block stretch, we did not notice one person driving a motor vehicle ignore the traffic laws or who even gestured to these lunatics about their disregard for traffic laws or about their rudeness. And isn't it curious that we keep hearing from the ultra-loud bicycle community about how motorists who disobey the traffic laws create issues for them.

Some of the riders are among those I call "friends." The ride captain, if who I think it was, is a close friend.

Within the club, there is a "obey the law, wink, wink," mentality. I am not immune to it, but I'm more careful about it than many. Part of my caution has manifested itself in doing fewer club rides and more solo (i.e. commuting) riding.

Oh, well. Off to work for the day.

Fried-day post of the week

Not much happening today at home. I got to have lunch with the Bike Louisville team today, to see what is happening in terms of bike-friendly stuff. Drove out to Crestwood to haul back Jenn's fast bike (we keep it there during the week for demonstration purposes), and a wheel from a repair that has been problematic. I was hoping to remove the freewheel at a shop by the house, but they don't have the right freewheel tool, either. I may have to make a stop at the Big S in Middletown on the way out to the shop tomorrow morning, meaning a drive to work instead of riding.

Yep, I'm doing the bike-fixing thing again as my main employment. It's working out pretty well, although I expect I'll be encouraging a few operational changes over the coming months.

One of my side conversations today at the lunch involved the possibility of turning my skill set into a part-time gig with the city's Bike Louisville team. Could happen, depending on the funding sources they find. We'll see. Anything involving money coming from the city is always a "don't believe it until I get the money" thing.

At least the bikes are behaving.

I took the Raleigh out Tuesday for a jaunt, to get in some miles for the heck of miles. Made the trip take on multiple purposes, though, as I needed to get cat food and cat litter (thus dealing with the ins and outs of having cats in the house, AND justifying pulling the trailer around), and it gave me an excuse to take David his repaired rear wheel for Nermal. On the way home, I stopped at the Kroger on US42 in the Clifton area for a few more groceries (jug of distilled water, some lunch stuff, etc), and had about forty or fifty pounds in the trailer when I left there. As I was leaving, another customer called me to arrange drop-off of a wheel set for rebuilding (new rims for a tandem! YAY!), so I hustled home. For the heck of it, I went up the first cross street I found that I thought would take me to Frankfort Avenue--I think it was Jane Street. Boy, is that a chain-strainer with a trailer attached! I was pulling on the handlebars to make that last bit of climb--I don't know what the grade is, but it's fairly steep--even for walkers!

Rain, rain, go away

We've had too darned much rain this year. Last night's storms added to the woes of many in our area who have to deal with bailing water from last week's flash floods. Local entities, including our public library, have millions of dollars in damages caused by the six-inch deluge we had in about two hours last week.

And other parts of the country are facing droughts--again, or still. I heard somewhere that the entire state of Texas is under an outdoor fire ban, although I've not substantiated the claim.

It's a shame we can't send them some of our rain...

Club picnic

Today was the Louisville Bicycle Club's annual picnic, held at the Farnsley-Moreman grounds in the southwestern part of the county.

Jenn and I opted to ride the "show and go" offered by a couple other club members, meeting at the Yellow Lot for Waterfront Park and riding to the picnic. We used a mixture of surface streets and the River Walk extension and Levee Trail to get there.

We also opted to take some salad and a couple gallons of lemonade to share, best hauled in a cooler, along with some lawn chairs, all of which fit handily in the trailer, so I pulled the trailer all day. The payload probably weighed about fifty pounds, and I was starting to get tired of pulling it. Since the ride was mostly flat, I never really got to coast--always a knock against really flat rides for me anyway--so before returning home, I dumped as much weight as I could.

It was hot, and we had a headwind a good portion of the way there. It was hotter on the way home, although the headwind was not as much of an issue.

Still, we were both glad to get home--it was a long, hot ride home for both of us, even if I'm better able to deal with heat than Jenn is.

Today is her day

Today is the day my ex got married, according to posts her fiance made a few weeks ago.

Better him than me. I'm a much happier person than I was when I was with my now-ex-girlfriend. That happiness allowed me to find Jenn, and we are doing well together.

I briefly entertained the notion of driving down to her folks' house, just to see if the wedding was happening there. Aside from the waste of gas, I figured the other likely outcome would be something involving a shotgun, so I went to work instead.

New toy

Well, maybe toy isn't the right word.

I've been watching places like Craigslist and a few consignment shops for a trailer, to haul more groceries by bike than I had been able to do. I saw a Trek Transit a few weeks ago, but before I could get back to buy it, it was gone.

I wanted something that would connect to the chainstay of the bike rather than to the axle, to better enable moving the trailer from bike to bike (among the three bikes in the garage that get used for utility stuff). I saw one close to home that was in the price range, but it was axle-connect.

There was one on Craigslist that seemed like it would work. It was out in Valley Station, so knowing the main question to ask, I called. As it sounded like it would work, I drove out and had a look.

I now have a cheap bike trailer, and have already done a grocery run with it, hauling home some bulky stuff I would not have hauled as easily with panniers.

My next task will be to drive out to the shop, as Barry's frame has arrived, and I've contracted to assemble it for him. Jenn plans on riding some long-for-her miles tomorrow, so I'll bring her Bacchetta home, too.

I've worked at the shop most of the week so far (all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, most of the day Monday), and it was good to be busy instead of sitting around the house.

This and that

As with other things, I wanted to tell some folks face-to-face first.

Now that that is largely done, and now that it's online anyway (I put up a Facebook page the other day, just to see what the buzz was, and Jenn linked to it from HER Facebook page, and it "told" all her friends that she hadn't yet told, and...)...

Part of the fallout from my job loss is that I was faced with doing the COBRA thing for health insurance. Getting insurance through Jenn's employer would be less expensive and gain better coverage (they are far larger than my prior employer, so got a better group rate), so we sped up our plans a bit. Instead of waiting until the intended 09/09/09, we went ahead and married on 7/17/09. Instead of having the 9/9/9 thing going, Jenn got two primes and a square (no prizes for guessing who is which).

I've been married for a bit more than two weeks, now. Each morning, when I get up, I've set another record for how long I've ever been married (this is my first marriage).

It's all good.

On the employment front: I've been working part-time for Bluegrass Bicycle for some time--about two years--on an "on call" basis, consulting with him to help make his shop more solid, and so on. We've decided to get a bit more in-depth with this, as I have found I really miss the "Bike Biz." I am, as the saying goes, "all about getting people on bikes," and being in a shop again will give me a much-missed venue for feeding that part of my psyche.

I rode the club rides Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Did some errand-running on the Raleigh last night. I'll probably use the Vanguard for the class tonight--the lessons are on rock dodging and quick turns.

Get the torches and pitchforks

A participant in the E.P. "Tom" Sawyer Park Triathlon held this morning was hit and killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver. There is an article on it on the Courier-Journal's web site, and I'm sure there are other articles on other local news stations' sites.

The photo of the driver at fault (allegedly) shows a young man whose life has changed dramatically since a month ago. Ten or eleven days ago, he was cited for driving under the influence, and was awaiting a court date on that offense when he and a buddy chose to drink and smoke dope all night (according to quotes in the paper's article), then run over a cyclist on his way home this morning. I have no pity whatsoever for the driver.

Predictably, there are a few posts along the lines of "get the damned bikes off the road this wouldn't happen," all of which ignore (of course) that it happens to passengers in other cars quite often.

Damn.

The Big C misses one

My mother is one step closer to considering herself a breast cancer survivor. This is a good thing!

Her diagnosis was met with the customary, "what now?" and "why me?" feelings, along with some heavy depression. Let's face it: It was scary at best.

On the other hand, her prognosis was always better than that many face. The cancer was low-grade, it was operable, and they could do radiation treatments only rather than the full battery of radiation and chemo. Her last radiation treatment for her program was earlier today.

Still, the radiation treatment program and the accompanying healing has made her extremely tired. All the time. As in, she takes a nap every day, something I never remember my mom doing unless she was very sick.

I'm not as worried now as I was, although there is still that chance that some cancerous cell escaped the wrath of the wroentgens [sic, I know, but alliterative, and no apologies for the pun].

On her way home, she stopped by the house to celebrate for just a moment, and so that she could meet her new grand-cat. Captain Kangaroo Jack Sparrow (the cat) was reluctant to come out, but tolerated the pets from Mom and my sister before going back into hiding for a while.

I'm glad she got the chance to see her grand-kitties again. I'm glad she's going to be a survivor. It goes without saying that I'd much rather have her around than an insurance settlement.

A few more miles

Wow. After a season that has mostly been "ride to work, ride home from work, MAYBE ride an evening club ride for somewhere in the 11-25 mile range," I've had a high-mileage month for a darned change.

I rode the Madison Century on July 4 (actually, I think it was 96 or 98 miles). I rode RAIN (160 miles). And I rode the club century today (112 miles).

For today's ride, I even rode to the ride start point AND home from the start point (rather than breaking off near home and taking that little shortcut of ten miles or so). My total for the day is 125 miles. My rolling average speed was 17.2--not exactly the 20.2 of RAIN, but on a much hillier course.

Today's route was essentially the course used for the Ironman triathlon in August. There was a seminar of some sort in town this weekend, and many riders attending that seminar had planned to ride the course yesterday, but had been rained out. They were out there today. There were a LOT of people on bicycles on those roads today.

Larry, Ed and I rode together again. Toward the end of the ride, Ed was having leg cramp problems. I'm too familiar with leg cramps--I get them from time to time and haven't completely solved the problem, although in my case, they tend to result from under-fueling unless I'm really over-using the muscles (as if riding thirteen mile each way commuting for several months then going to long hard fast miles is not abusing the muscles just a wee bit...). I even had a couple minor cramps today, but nothing I couldn't ride through and work out as I rode. I felt bad for Ed, though, knowing quite well how painful the cramps can be.

Still, the three of us ride well together, sharing pulling/drafting duties.

Oh, and if we hadn't had all those dratted flat tires today, we probably would have been back to the lot forty-five minutes earlier. Ed had a flat early in the ride, after he and I had hit a pot hole on River Road. Right as we get his tire fixed and all the bike bags zipped, I discovered that my own front tire was very soft, so I unpacked my bag again to change my own tube. Between the first store stop and the lunch stop, Larry had his own front tire go down. The p*nt*r* f**ry had it in for us today, pure and simple.

Blah week

As mentioned previously, I'm out of work. It's depressing, but not as bad as the job I had. I really didn't like being there, and being home feels much better.

I've taken some time this week to just veg out a bit. Did some errands, got a few odds and ends done, but haven't worked hard at anything. There is stuff to do, of course--laundry that needs to be done, a job search to organize and begin, computer issues I now have time to address--but little emotional energy to do them.

In short, the job had sucked a lot of my energy away, in ways I hadn't fully recognized. It may take a while to regroup, but I need to do it. I need to feel productive--something I haven't felt for a long time in the work environment. I had a few moments of "oh, this works" when a property manager, but they were too few, and too often offset by the drudgery of trying to convince someone whose income fits in that narrow range required by the set up of the apartment building that this is THE place to live, and oh, by the way, you also have to pay the rent on time each month. The sob story about your car dying, causing you to lose your job four miles away, doesn't go very far with someone who rides a bike thirteen miles to get to work. Your insistence that you keep your word to make up late payments doesn't say much when the signature on your lease is, to put it bluntly, your word that you will pay on time. Going to court to evict you for not paying your rent does NOT make me happy.

Oh, well. That's behind me. I've been saying that, aside from the loss of income, I'm already in a better place than I was two weeks ago. I still have friends and family on whom I can rely for moral and immoral support. I have Jenn. I have my bicycles, so I can get around. I qualify for unemployment compensation, so while the money will be tight for a while, I can still breathe and eat a bit and keep a roof over my head, for a few months, anyway.

I put the car away the other day, and aside from driving to Okolona for a Chiropractic appointment, have not driven it since Monday. I probably could have ridden to Okolona, but it was raining, and I really wasn't in the mood to deal with being soggy all day. For my errands on Tuesday and yesterday, though, I rode. So that I could do my errands wearing a kilt instead of p@nt$, I rode the Raleigh.

One of my errands was a visit to the St Matthews Police Department. During a ride I was captaining a few years ago, I enjoyed striking up a casual friendship with the Assistant Chief of that department, Major Kathy Eigelbach. I've chatted with her from time to time over the last couple years, especially now that I live in St Matthews. There was a blurb in the paper recently informing us that she is retiring soon from that department. I went by to congratulate her on her retirement. While I was there, she made sure I got to say hello to one of their long-standing officers, Debbie Marasa, who I had known in high school. It was good to see them both, and good to have positive interaction with police officers. I doubt I'll need any special favors from them in the future, but their knowing me can't hurt anything.

Weekend RAIN report

I rode RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) over the weekend. If you've not heard of it, it's a one-day, one-way ride from the western edge of Indiana, near Terre Haute, to Earlham College in Richmond, on the eastern edge of the state. This was my sixth time over the last seven years.

My riding partner each year has been Larry Preble. Last year, Ed Scharfenberger joined our team, and returned this year. Each of us rides a Bacchetta--Larry a Corsa, Ed a 2008 Strada, and I my customized 2002 Strada. One of the things we enjoy on this ride is hearing some of the comments from other riders on the course, like, "This guy's in a hurry on that laid-back bike...oh, so is his friend, on HIS laid-back bike...wow, here's a third one!" as we go past a cluster of DF riders. Of course, there are those who get all parochial on us, and have to try to prove to themselves and all around them that THEY won't get passed by some old coot on a 'bent, even if that "old coot" is younger and stronger than they are and on more efficient bicycles to boot...

Our ride was not marred by flats this year (Ed had one last year in downtown Terre Haute, Larry had one a few years ago near Franklin), nor by overly-severe cramps (although both Larry and Ed experienced some painful cramps, they didn't have to get off their bikes for long--I fared better this year than they did). We didn't see any bicycle crashes, although we did see one rider being attended by EMS shortly before lunch.

Our ride pace was good this year, although not a personal best. Any time three guys (including this out of shape guy who has done precisely one century since September of last year) can average 20.2 miles an hour over 162 miles is a good ride.

We did witness a disaster for a motorcyclist, though. We were stopped at a stop sign, waiting for a safe opportunity to cross IN 267 south of I-70 a bit after the second rest stop in Plainfield. A southbound motorist slowed, as if to allow us to cross. A northbound motorcyclist slowed dramatically, for reasons we couldn't decipher. A northbound motorist failed to notice that the motorcycle had slowed, and hit him from behind at high enough a speed that the motorcycle was shunted some hundred feet or more, the rider tossed in the air like a rag doll to land behind the car as it passed under him. The driver apparently froze on the gas pedal, and careened off the road through a fence into a nearby field.

Larry's account, as posted on the KYCYCLIST listserver, includes some links to Google Maps and their surface views of the intersection, albeit at a time far removed from when we were there:

Sixty-Eight miles into the ride, in Plainfield, Indiana, we were stopped
here, waiting for traffic: http://crashscene1.notlong.com Just behind where
you see the white car in the picture, a large motorcycle was coming to a
stop, close to the shoulder of the road, when a small sedan barreled into
him from behind at high speed. The motorcycle was hurled more than a
hundred feet forward, smashing into pieces while the motorcyclist was
catapulted into a back flip straight up in the air about 15 feet. The driver
must have panicked at that point, because as her vehicle passed under the
airborne rider, she hit the accelerator instead of the brake sending her
crashing through the fence and at least 300 feet off into the adjacent
field. The rider completed a half turn in midair and slammed down onto the
pavement striking his shoulder and his head. Unfortunately, the motorcycle
rider was not wearing a helmet. The point of impact was here,
http://crashscene2.notlong.com, just to the right of the medium-sized bush
in the center of the picture. The car continued into the field, here on the
right. http://crashscene3.notlong.com. And here is an overhead view of the
scene: http://crashscene4.notlong.com. We were stopped at the intersection
to the left, travelling West to East. The collision was just South of the
intersection, travelling South to North.

It was harrowing to see the rider flying in the air as he was. It was scary to see his injuries, although there were others more qualified to help on hand soon after, and I stayed out of their way. What really got to me, though, and bothers me still, was witnessing the man's struggle against the aid workers who were trying to get him immobilized in preparation for transport. He was coming to, in immense pain, couldn't really tell what was happening, and despite the efforts of those workers to tell him what was happening, they couldn't get into his consciousness that they were trying to help him. He was yelling and fighting their efforts for some time before we left, and still was when we left him to the care of EMS and fire department folks.

I've not been able to find any news reports on the incident to link here. I wonder whether he survived, or how he's doing. It's going to be a rough row to hoe for him for a long time, if he ever does recover.

The driver who hit him was inconsolable, sobbing over and over, "I didn't even SEE him." None of us wanted to talk to her, each for his own reasons--most were focused on aiding the motorcyclist or keeping cars out of the crash site. I could not have said anything approaching, "there, there, it's going to be okay." It was most certainly NOT okay, nor would it be any time soon. Her inattentiveness had cost someone a lot of time with a family member, and perhaps cost that motorcyclist his life. The car she was driving had a HUGE dent in the front end from the impact with the bike--it was a big heavy cruiser-type motorcycle--and her repair bill on the car would likely be in excess of the car's value. I didn't have to scold her, either, as she will live with what she'd done for the rest of her life, which seems more punishment than I'm authorized to mete out to anyone.

Needless to say, our ride pace was a bit subdued for a while after that.

I'm glad to be alive.

chance meeting

On my way home yesterday, as I neared the bridge, I encountered a couple who were bicycle-touring. They had missed a turn, so I helped them with that. They were excited to see my Ryan with the panniers mounted, initially thinking me also a touring rider. I told them I was commuting, of course, but we got to talk a few moments about their trip before a motorist interrupted our conversation to ask me about my bike.

With the interruption, I didn't get to talk more with them than to find out they had left New York (not sure where in New York, upstate or wherever), ridden to Florida then to California then up toward Washington state before heading home via Jeffersonville IN. They were on their way to Charlestown Indiana via Utica, from what I could tell, but we never got to discuss, "Why Charlestown?" They may have been going to visit David, for all I know, but I had no way to know.

They had been out ten months--what a trip to remember!

As mentioned, a motorist interrupted our visit to ask me about my bicycle. After chatting with him a minute or two more about recumbents and availability of same, I went on home. I wanted to ride the Tuesday evening ride from Burdorf's, as it would be my last opportunity for some hard pushing before RAIN this coming weekend. My average speed for last night's ride was a tick over 19 mph, and the climb up Glenview really slowed me down. I've not been climbing well the last couple seasons, mostly because I haven't been out climbing a lot the last couple of seasons.

Maybe I can work on that a bit in the coming weeks...

Well, phooey

It is with mixed emotions that I type this. I was told this morning that it is clear I have been unhappy doing what I've been doing for employment for the last eleven months, and that because I've been unhappy, my employer fears I have one foot in the door and one foot out. Rather than worry that I'll walk out at any time, they decided that it's time for me to find something else to do for income. I now also have more time to look for a more suitable position.

To be frank about it, aside from the loss of income in this economy, my biggest regret is that they beat me to the punch. I am, and have been, certain that being a property manager in an apartment building is far from the best use of my talents and interests. It's true: I don't like being a property manager. I'm not interested in being a social worker for fifty or sixty of society's misfits, such as are the tenants attracted to this building. I don't like being a bill collector. The paperwork is stultifying.

I had something like two weeks' worth of paid time off accrued, and I get that (of course, I'll probably be taxed at a higher rate since it's coming to me with my next paycheck). I am surprised that I got forty-eight hours' notice of my impending termination--that is out of character. I can't believe the boss would expect a whole lot of productivity today or tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to put down as the day goes on.

With the class on Mondays, I'm tight enough on time that I usually drive to work. Today, though, I got to ride the Vanguard.

I ordered a new rear tire for it the other day, after changing a punctured tube last Monday evening and deciding the tire tread was thin enough that I was going to have trouble soon. I don't know why the tire would be worn out, it's only been on there for seven years or so, and only has six or so thousand miles on it...

The new tire should arrive today or tomorrow.

I got to ride more of the new pavement in N'Awb'ny this morning. Smooth is good. They've painted it, too. I wish repaving wasn't such an ecological disaster!

I will probably ride the club ride this evening, and hit it pretty hard, given that it will be my last chance to ride hard before RAIN this weekend. I've not figured out how to control my conditioning so that I can decide to have an "on" day some time in advance and actually have that on day when the time comes. I'll have to make it happen somehow, though--I'm riding with two guys who are stronger than I am, and keeping up with them will be a challenge. Oh, well. Maybe our fourth guy will slow us down a bit...

New family member

...and I didn't even realize we were expecting!

Even before we had to euthanize Al E Qat a few months ago, Jenn had mentioned that she wanted to eventually have a black cat.

Having "only" three cats, instead of the accustomed four we had for almost a year, seemed out of balance for Jenn. We talked about letting the number decrease over time by attrition, but apparently that got over-ridden as well.

The Feeder's Supply near us has a few cats for adoption, from the KY Humane Society. One cat they had was black, with medium-length fur (well, it all will be when it grows back out--they had to cut out some mats in his fur...). His name was Chance, but he has been renamed to reflect fondness for some fictional characters Jenn and I have both enjoyed over the years. Captain Kangaroo Jack Sparrow now lives with us.

He's a sweet-natured cat--has a nice purr, enjoys pets (to the point that he drools), understands some basic people-to-cat communications ("kitty, kitty" works well with Cap'n, as one casual name might be).

Early attempts at photography with him remind me of the challenge of taking pictures of a black cat in a coal bin with available light.

So far, the only objections have been from Stoker, possibly due to Cap'n's name implying that Stoker will STILL not get to be King Cat in our household (with Al's passing, Stoker felt ascension was his, until I told him he couldn't be King Cat unless he was nicer to Jerry, another of our cats. In the tradition of cats the world over, he ignored me...).

Stoker's objection could have simply been to a strange cat, without any of the anthropomorphizing, for that matter.

He'll have to get over it.

Another Fried-day

especially if one is on some of that new pavement in "N'Awb'ny."

The morning low was 74 or so, but my t-shirt was quite sweaty by the time I got to the office this morning. Glad I brought a spare.

Today is our agency's "dress down" day, meaning that folks get to wear jeans and t-shirts, provided the t-shirt message is in keeping with corporate guidelines (no obnoxious stuff, but Repair Affair shirts or shirts from Big Brothers/Big Sisters, United Way, etc are quite welcome). It is also the day of the week when I get to wear a kilt if I choose (Don't get me started on this one), so I rode the Raleigh, kilted.

My signature line on kilt forums is, "Lovin' the breeze 'tween m'knees" for a reason.

The repaving work in N'Awb'ny is moving along well, from what I can see. What I've ridden of it is quite an improvement from the assortment of patches, potholes, cracks from freeze/thaw cycle heaving and such. Heck, even the chewed-down pavement was an improvement in some places.

I still have qualms about fresh asphalt and its effect on the environment, but smooth roads sure beat what was there.

New Pavement in N'Awb'ny!

On my way to work this morning, I saw some of the new pavement that is being poured on the roads I travel. It's N-i-i-i-ce!

I've not toured all the work zones yet--I was on my way to work, after all. Not all the work is done, anyway. But there is smooth riding on at least some of the streets I frequent, and more on the way.

This is the third day I've ridden the Raleigh to work this week. The Vanguard had a leaky tube in the rear tire, and when I changed that the other night, I noted that the rear tire is about worn out. It will go another several trips, but I want to minimize use for a while, just in case.

On my way home Tuesday, I picked up tickets to the Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan show at Slugger Field. I stopped on the way home from work to enjoy the show. It made for a long day, but the show was quite good. The bike got locked to the bike rack in front of Browning's, and was just as I'd left it when I returned to it after the show. Jenn had used TARC to get her bike downtown, and she and I rode home together--always a good thing.

Tuesday

I rode the Raleigh today. I had a training session at the main office, then pedaled my way to N'Awb'ny. Spring Street, the last end of Providence Way, Silver Street, Beharrel Street and others have had a couple inches of asphalt ground off them in preparation for repaving. As noted, I have mixed feelings about repaving, but I will enjoy the new pavement when riding. The ground-off roads give a buzz through the handlebars and seat, and if the grinding lines aren't straight, they tend to alter my path a bit, which can be disconcerting. I'll be glad when they get done with it.

I thought about going on the 6:30 club ride this evening, but I'm expecting a friend to bring some stuff by the house. I'm to fetch a tandem tomorrow evening for some preventive maintenance work, and I get to use it for RAIN this year--Barry Zalph may be my stoker for the event.

Pavement

Another factor in whether I'll ride to work over the next few days was brought to my attention on my drive home this afternoon. New Albany (or N'Awb'ny, as I am wont to call it) is doing a LOT of repaving right now, much of it along my commute corridor.

I'm always of mixed minds over pavement renewal. Part of me considers all that oil to be something of an ecological disaster--the oil must leach out of the asphalt at some rate, reducing the cohesion of the pavement. It seems that such would be part of the wear cycle. The fumes around new pavement are pretty rough, too. I couldn't imagine working in that industry as a laborer.

Another, albeit short-term, pain in the axles is that they are reclaiming much of the aggregate. This is a good thing, in the long run, but for a couple days the road surface is very irregular, and not a little hazardous on a bicycle. The coarser surface is bad in a fall, too, should that happen.

Of course, being a small city, N'Awb'ny didn't wait until it REALLY needed to be repaved. There were a couple places yet that had not been patched, and a couple places that had not developed holes, even.

I'm sure, however, that many (including myself) will appreciate the new smooth pavement when the work is done.

At least for a week, after which time someone will have to dig under the street for some reason, leaving a metal plate over the hole for a week or two before making an imperfect patch (with the requisite sink-hole in it).

catching up

Lessee...didn't post much last week--not much to say, really (or maybe it was that there was other stuff happening and I didn't take time to post?).

I got home Monday night--tired. Did some errand-running on the Vanguard Tuesday afternoon. Rode the Vanguard to the main office Wednesday morning, changed into street clothes for what I thought would be a training session, found that I was not given the correct schedule, rode to N'Awb'ny, realized I should have stayed at the main office for another hour and a half for a meeting I should have remembered...

Rode to work Thursday, too, and got to go home early, after an afternoon celebration over passing some recent federal inspections. We were off Friday, so I worked in Mom's yard, as I had done Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I helped my stepfather remove some dead trees (having a dead tree fall is inevitable--whether the timing and direction of the fall is controlled is the issue). Jenn was there with me, and she got to learn to replace fence posts (there are several of them rotted off below ground level after eighteen years in place). We have a few more posts to replace, but ran out of posts.

On Saturday, I rode my first century of the season. Most years, I've ridden at least two or three by now, some years I rode four or five by this time (if one counts the stacking of club rides, say riding to a sixty or seventy-five mile ride starting at 8:00 am followed by riding to a twenty-five mile ride in the afternoon then riding home for about a hundred miles, which I've done in the past). The Madison Century is on the schedule for the weekend closest to July 4th, timed to arrive in Madison Indiana during their annual Regatta (We got to hear a couple of the fast hydroplane boats doing qualification laps as we climbed the hill out of town on US421, but I didn't stay for the fun). By the end of the ride, my average speed was still over eighteen miles an hour! This is good, because I plan to do RAIN in two weeks and want to be sure I'll have the legs for it. Apparently, my bike commuting is keeping me from losing whatever strength I have--surprising since my commute is pretty flat and by century-ride standards very short, not to mention that I'm on a different bike than I use for century rides.

From the ride start/end point in Prospect, I drove to Simpsonville for a July 4th party.

Yesterday, my friend Harry and his wife Sherry held a party to celebrate my engagement to Jenn. It was a great chance for some of Jenn's family and friends to meet some of my family and friends. In keeping with human nature, I suppose, there wasn't a huge amount of cross-conversation, but what did happen was good. At some point over the weekend, I discovered that the Vanguard has developed a leak in the rear tire/tube. I installed a new tube as a teaching moment for the class Monday evening, and have decided that I REALLY need to replace that rear tire. I've also found a broken spoke--something this wheel is not supposed to be doing, although it does see rough service with a lot of weight on it.

Since I'm teaching this afternoon, I'm tight for time after work, and drove today. I have meetings at the main office every morning but Friday this week, which may make riding to work problematic, but I'll see what I can do. My legs don't feel bad at all today--didn't feel bad yesterday, either. I can run the stairs in the apartment building with my usual flair today.

Yep, run the stairs. One of the resident children had some friends over a week or two ago. They were using the elevator to get from the main floor up two floors. I watched them get on the elevator, then ran up to their destination floor and was standing by the elevator by the time the door opened, amazing the friends. The things one does for self-amusement...

Home again

Over the weekend, I became an unofficial member of the RAAM Team Type 2 crew. This is no surprise to me, as I had been contributing from afar from time to time during the race--Jenn would call me to get my perspective on this or that problem, figuring that I was not as tired and thus (or so the hope had it) more able to think the problem through clearly. Hey, some of my input actually helped!

After the fun of meeting many of the crew members and racers Friday morning in Bloomington, I flew to Maryland (via Southwest Airlines) to witness the finish of the team's ride and the joy of their accomplishment.

There were folks who didn't think the team would finish the event. Psh! These guys planned on finishing, and did. They didn't plan on being the first team across the line--their companion squad, Team Type 1, had that plan, however, and executed it nicely--they hold the new RAAM record for 8-man team time! Team Type 2 planned to finish. Their finish was better than they planned--they beat another team. Through it all, however, the ethos of the event is that all teams encourage all other teams.

I was at the finish line for the finish of a couple other teams' rides, and in keeping with this ethos, made lots of noise to congratulate them. It's a hell of an accomplishment to ride 3000 miles in one stage, regardless of how many are on the team.

Jenn repeatedly says she wants to crew again for them next year (when she is awake, that is--sleep deprivation is a hallmark of RAAM). She has quite a few stories from the event, and even more pictures. When we get them online, I'll provide a link on this blog as well.

RAAM heats up

Solo RAAM leader board

Team RAAM leader board

Jenn's parents and I drove up to Bloomington to surprise her during the team's squad changeover. We arrived around 0330, and the team RVs were on site, as was the utility van Jenn has been co-driving a good part of the week. Crew members were moving around, doing their thing, save for a few who were getting some much-needed shut-eye. Jenn was part of that last little group.

A few minutes after we arrived, the team rotation van arrived. Five or ten minutes later, the racer of the moment and the chase car arrived, to much applause. His family was gathered on the sidewalk near the entrance to the time station, which had to be a morale booster for him.

The applause woke Jenn, and I was ready. I watched her stirring around, and moved so that I was partly hidden by the front roof pillar of her van. By the time she opened the door, I was almost in the door zone and greeted her with a big hug--a surprise for her, especially since she had just awakened. She introduced her parents and me to everyone on the team and crew--some more than once in her excitement that we were there.

As one would expect, they have become a very tightly-knit crew over the last several days. This is to be expected, given the intensity and duration of the event, but it's still fun to see, even from the outside. It was also fun to watch the coreography in the set-up and break-down of the equipment used for feeding the team, allowing them to shower a bit, and so on (They don't want to use the lavatory in the RV, as they would then have to dump the tank, which takes too much time).

Jenn's teammates and crewmates appreciated our visit. I'm glad we went.

And I'm flying up to watch their finish tomorrow. Their ETA was something like 0400 Sunday at one point, but has moved up to 0100 Sunday, then 2100 Saturday, after a few fast legs of the journey. They may even beat that ETA, although I suspect the mountainous terrain of western Maryland will make that difficult.

Here it is, Thursday!

I rode the Vanguard to work today, after driving yesterday due to time constraints on the after-work side. I rode the Raleigh Monday, took off Tuesday to ride the Strada, and intend to ride the Vanguard again tomorrow.

I felt faster on the Vanguard than I usually do. I'm not sure why, but I'll take it. The bike felt smoother, somehow. Maybe it's simply that much more comfortable than the Raleigh...

Last night was the fourth and final meeting of the Confident Cycling class I've been teaching. The group started out as twelve folks, a couple couldn't make the last two meetings for various reasons, a few simply dropped out without telling us why, and one had some work issues get in the way, with the result that I signed four certificates last night. I enjoy teaching these classes, but it's also good to be done with it for a little while.

I will be out at my folks' house for a while this evening and tomorrow evening, doing some yard work in preparation for the September festivities being held there. I generally dislike yard work--while it's far more natural than working on bikes or cars, it just isn't me. However, it's worth doing sometimes, and this is such a time.
Edit: change of plans...Jenn is going to be at the RAAM time station in Bloomington Indiana about 0400 Friday. I talked to her today, and she said something along the lines of inviting her folks to come up and watch what she's been doing for the last several days as a crew member. When I mentioned that their ETA in Bloomington was 0445 or so, she figured that neither her folks nor I will make it to see them while they are there. Hehehehehe Of course, it means leaving the house at something like 0100 to meet her folks at 0130, drop off my truck at the office, and drive up to Bloomington, visit for a few minutes or a couple hours, then drive back down.

I'm flying up to Annapolis Saturday morning, to watch the arrival of some of the RAAM teams. I can't wait. It will be my first flight since getting my CPAP machine that helps me manage my apnea, and dealing with that ought to be fun.

Played hookey

I have ridden RAIN for five of the last six years, and had been planning to do so again this year. I've been worried about my long mileage legs, though, as it seems all my riding is commuting--lower speed, lower cadence work on fairly flat terrain (my biggest climb in my commute is Payne Street) for few miles (and less than an hour each trip), compared to 160 miles of flat to gently-rolling terrain at high output for nine hours (well, eight and a piece, plus breaks).

In an effort to get some long miles in, to see if I can do RAIN without pain, I took a personal day today and went for a club ride out of Vettiner Park. The schedule showed a sixty mile ride, but the captain opted to shorten it a bit due to the heat. We went fifty miles.

The route had some good rollers, and a couple of medium- to stout climbs (the largest two being on 1633 just north of Taylorsville and on Seatonville Road just southeast of the end of Billtown Road). My usual RAIN ride partner, Larry Preble, was on hand today, on his *gasp* Trek 2000. He rides the Trek on Tuesdays, usually considering Tuesday his recovery ride day--he doesn't plan on riding hard.

Larry and I have ridden together for several years. One thing that always happens when we ride together is that one or both of us will plan and state intention to ride slower than normal, but we get caught up in trying to keep up with each other, and we end up going fast. One wouldn't know that from my average speed, which was something like 16 or 17 miles an hour, unless one were to look at the grade profile and see all the times I was going five or ten miles an hour instead of twenty-five or my maximum speed of 44.

I went in to this ride looking for information on myself. I wanted to see how my "burn" felt--how my fuel is working for me these days, as I haven't used Perpetuem this year (haven't ridden far enough). I wanted to see how my legs would perform. I wanted to see if I remembered how to pace myself.

It's sort of like riding a bike. You don't truly forget. I'm a bit rusty, but things felt quite smooth today. I sometimes express how my body does during a long or hard ride in terms of fuel burn. I feel a clean burn, or a dirty burn, depending on several factors--what I've eaten that day and for a couple days before, how much I'm drinking and of what during the ride, how clogged I feel--it's a sense that I cannot quite quantify. My burn today felt almost clean, but not quite. It was good, given my time off that bike. Riding to work is surely helping, and more than I thought it would.

If I can work it out, I will take off a few more days between now and RAIN to get some long miles on the bike. My riding partners for RAIN this year, Larry Preble and Ed Scharfenburger, are both very strong riders. It's good that we are on closely matched bikes (Larry has a Bacchetta Corsa, Ed a stock Strada).

Last year, we played leapfrog with a group in matching jerseys, and they were clearly upset that we would take longer breaks than they did and pass them out on the road (darned recumbents aren't supposed to be faster than a wedgie pace line!). We had our own pace line going much of the time, and now that Ed has a full year on his bike (he had had it three or four weeks when we rode RAIN last year), we ought to be able to keep tighter formations for better advantage.

I can't wait!

Seasonal milestones again

I noted another seasonal milestone the other night: Monday or Tuesday evening, I saw my first lightning bugs of the season. In the course of walking the dog, I saw probably fifteen or twenty.

Last night, I had to have seen a hundred of them. It was neat to see.

I was reminded of a couple nights one summer ten or fifteen years ago. I was working for UPS, unloading airplanes for the Next Day operation. When I got off work, I would often go wander in one or another of the local parks for a while to unwind before going home to bed.

One such night, I was in George Rogers Clark Park, across Poplar Level Road from Audobon Hospital. The park has some lovely slopes on both sides of a small creek. I was near the top of one slope, and looking across the creek, there was a veritable wall of trees. In front of that wall of trees, from my perspective, was a shimmering curtain of lightning bugs. It was a wonderful sight.

I rode the Vanguard to work Monday, and the Raleigh Tuesday. The rain Monday left the roads wet enough and the parking lot wet enough that I opted out of having the students do the emergency stop parking lot drill and subsequent bike ride. We did talk about the drills a bit, though, so that the students could at least tinker with the ideas at home.

I was watching the weather forecast Tuesday, but not quite well enough. I had in mind to leave the office early, to beat the heavy weather coming our way, but people kept coming by to see me over one thing or another, and it was after four by the time I left. I got out of New Albany before the rain started hitting me. By the time I crossed 131 from Providence Way to N Clark Boulevard, I was hearing thunder, and seeing an occasional lightning flash. By the time I got to Jeffersonville, I was seeing frequent flashes of lightning, closer than I really like (but not so close I felt endangered). The rain was also falling much harder. By the time I got to the bridge, visibility was hampered.

As I crossed the bridge, a motorist (in a small SUV, no less) kindly kept traffic off my back by driving behind me at a good distance with her four-way flashers going. I'm normally a little put-off by this--I feel I'm pretty visible most of the time. However, I also realize that she was doing so because she was not in such a hurry that she couldn't do an extra bit to improve road safety for all of us. I, of course, waved happily with all five fingers in a clear "thank you!" gesture when I neared the traffic light at the Kentucky end of the bridge and she went past me.

I had to stop a couple times on my way home to get the sweaty rainwater out of my eyes. By the time I got to Payne Street, though, the rain had eased off, and I started making better progress.

Of course, by the time I got home, the next band of heavy rain was arriving. It quit raining soon after I got home.

Yesterday, I had to drive to work--I had a bunch of stuff to haul. I also was on a tight time line after work, as I am teaching one of the Confident Cycling classes this month. I'm on a tight time line this evening as well, as I am presenting a session at the Bon Air branch of the Louisville Free Public Library this evening.

As I type this, Jenn is at the airport, getting ready to fly out to Oceanside California. She is on a support crew for RAAM riders (Team Type 2) who are riding to bring attention to the fact that folks with Type 2 Diabetes CAN be active and healthy--indeed, being active helps one be healthy, a truth that seems to escape too many in our society. Anyway, it means that I'll be following their progress with a bit more interest than I have in prior years--I have more friends in the race this time.

Friends and family have been half-jokingly wondering how I'll get along without Jenn at the house. I think I will manage, somehow. =-)

Hardly rode over the weekend

It's getting to be a bad trend. Here it is, well into June, and I haven't done any LONG miles since last year (long miles being bike rides over 50 miles in length).

This past weekend, for example, included a day at the stock car races (and tailgating near the speedway before race time). Jenn's father takes her and her two brothers to the Nationwide Series Meijer 300 at Sparta as a family get-together thing, and I was invited.

It was fun, I suppose. I've not quite caught the bug for the game "Corn Hole," although I tossed a few bags of seed corn at the boards that day. We socialized over a beer or two, or tea, or sodas, depending on the person. We wandered up to the main gate at the track, and the vendor area spread out in front of that. There were a couple booths offering samples of tobacco products, one selling what I presume to be a male-enlargement product (of what I also presume to be spurious value with a bikini model in a cute suit that, even if were not engaged/involved, I probably wouldn't find interesting on a date), various "collectible" trinkets (like anyone is going to buy these things ten years from now? How much for a 1980 Cabbage Patch Doll?).

It was fun to see a big-league race again. The last race of this caliber for me was the Southern 500 at Darlington S.C. on Labor Day weekend of 1978. I don't remember tons of what happened at that race, but I think that somewhere in my various stashes of keepsakes I have a spark plug I picked up in the pit area after the race. "Those were the days," to borrow the title from All in the Family.

While it was fun to see a super-speedway race, when it comes to auto racing, I'm still a short-track guy. Watching cars travel a mile and a half per lap is tough to do--that is a LOT of territory to watch. On the other hand, short tracks present their own challenges--often the track management does not seem as big on safety at smaller tracks, for example.

Before I even learned to ride a bike, I loved cars. By the time I was eight, my father realized the value in taking me to the speedway not far from where we lived at the time for father/son stuff. I knew who the drivers were, and had favorites. I vividly remember one car rolling over in a crash there, and seeing the guy with another similar car the following week. He apparently lived around the corner from us, as the wrecked racer was in front of a house near our subdivision for a couple days later that week (for what it's worth, the cars were 1958 or '59 Chrysler products, probably Plymouths).

When I was a kid, my heroes were race car drivers. Race car drivers wore seat belts. When I was eight or nine, we as a family got a newer car for Mom, to replace the 1956 Chevrolet she had been driving. That car had shoulder belts, relatively new to mainstream cars. There was a tag on the belt that included something along the lines of, "Do NOT use if wearer is less than 4'8" tall."

I couldn't WAIT to grow that last two inches!

I fully realize that there is some sort of double-standard in my fondness for auto racing. I don't get to indulge myself in the enjoyment of watching good short-track racing often, though, as I have so many other interests these days.

Anyway...

Yesterday was time for an early celebration of Jenn's birthday. Her birthday is later this week, but she will be out of town, working on a crew supporting Team Type 2 on Race Across America.

After the celebrations, I had to attend a Club officers' meeting, so I at least rode the few blocks to that from the house. Once that was done, I could then get geared up for another exciting week at the job with no glory.

Hey, at least I rode to work today.

Not enough cycling

It's been tough to really get on the bike of late.

After a month of rarely getting to ride to work, I'm out of the habit of doing so as much. Add to that that I'm teaching two days a week this month, with the time constraints of those schedules, and I've not ridden enough to warrant any kind of good mojo.

I rode to work today, and got to ride to work Tuesday, but drove Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (that last due to oversleeping/having trouble motivating myself to get up and ride in the rain). EDIT: David reminded me that I did, indeed, ride to work Monday. I rode the Vanguard, loaded as it was with teaching stuff, so that I could go directly to the Monday evening class at Waterfront Park after work instead of going home and then back downtown. Note to self: Do my blog entries more often so that I don't forget stupid stuff like this.

The Vanguard is loaded with teaching stuff--a stack of halved tennis balls for parking lot drills, sign-up sheets, clipboards, hand-outs of various sorts, and a small pile of tubes in case students get flats while in class. Rather than switch the load every other day, I rode the Raleigh Tuesday and today.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy doing RAIN, which is coming up in four or five weeks. I also need to get with the other folks who want to ride it, and see who is ready or who is unable to go this time.

I finally got to ride again

After three or four weeks of work life being in upheaval over a "must-pass" inspection, life is hopefully returning to normal, meaning I get to ride to work at one work site, with stops at the main office on my way to or from my own office. The main office is a couple blocks off my commute route, so stopping there is not an imposition.

Repair Affair is this weekend and next, though. I'll be part of that tomorrow, helping support volunteer teams that are working on houses for the beneficiaries of the program. Repair Affair is a neat program. Volunteer teams from various places (church groups, clubs, groups of folks who work together, neighborhood associations, and so on) do handyman "neighbor helping neighbor" stuff for low-income elderly or disabled homeowners--paint the house, clear brush from the yard, build ramps, install grab bars or handrails, make other minor repairs to the house with an eye toward "safe, warm and dry." Magnificent things happen for the homeowners.

My part of it this year is to drive a one-ton flat bed truck to haul stuff from place to place. To prepare for this, I'll have to fetch the truck this afternoon, and park it closer to where I can use it tomorrow morning.

To make that easier, I rode my bike to work today (ain't it great that I can say that!). I don't have to get a ride to where the truck is--I can toss my bike in the cargo area of the truck.

Since it was a cool morning, I rode wearing my office clothing--a kilt and a shirt--and I don't have to change clothes in the course of my day.

Jenn's doing the MS Bike the Bluegrass tomorrow and Sunday. If you haven't donated toward this cause, she could use some donations to get her to her fund-raising goal. I didn't do anything with the ride this year (too many other obligations), although I've captained some preparatory rides for it in years past, and worked the ride as a roving bike mechanic a couple years when I was working for one of the ride sponsors. It is a great cause, and a great ride.